The quick beginnings of the 1898 Spanish-American War started with the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894. The American levy, which put confinements on sugar imports to the United States, extremely hurt the economy of Cuba, which depended on delivering and offering sugar. In Cuba, then a Spanish settlement, irate patriots known as the insurrectos started a rebellion against the decision Spanish pioneer administration. At the point when Spain sent in General "Butcher" Weyler to balance out the circumstance in Cuba, he put a great part of the populace in inhumane imprisonments. The US, which had numerous representatives with speculation interests in Cuba, got to be concerned. The American open was mixed into an against Spain furor by the yellow reporting of men like Hearst and Pulitzer. Regardless, President Grover Cleveland guaranteed he would not go to war. When President McKinley came into office in 1897, the mayhem over Cuba was proceeding, despite the fact that Weyler had cleared out. In 1898, the US dispatched the USS Maine on an "inviting" mission to Cuba. The boat was to hold up, prepared to safeguard US nationals who may be jeopardized by the contention in Cuba. On …show more content…
10, 1898, Spain renounced all claim to Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for $20,000,000. The Spanish-American War was an important turning point in the history of both antagonists. Spain’s defeat decisively turned the nation’s attention away from its overseas colonial adventures and inward upon its domestic needs, a process that led to both a cultural and a literary renaissance and two decades of much-needed economic development in Spain. The victorious United States, on the other hand, emerged from the war a world power with far-flung overseas possessions and a new stake in international politics that would soon lead it to play a determining role in the affairs of
The Spanish American war had a complex beginning. By the 1890’s, Cuba had unsuccessfully battled Spain for its independence for many years. Due to the US’s economic interests in Cuba, the US government sought to stabilize the situation. The United States and Cuba negotiated an agreement that Cuba would become self-governing on January 1, 1898. But
In June of 1895, President Grover Cleveland took a stance of neutrality toward the Cuban conflict, though many American citizens grew concerned that the fight was too close to home. (Spanish-American) By December of the next year, Cleveland declared that the U.S. might be forced to take action if Spain was unable to solve the Cuban crisis alone. (Library of Congress) Spain granted Cuba limited autonomy in January of 1897, but the natives were not satisfied. As the Spanish resorted to ruthless tactics to keep the Cubans in line, their brutality created much sympathy in the United States. Tensions rose between America and Spain. The other shoe dropp...
The Spanish-American war cannot be directly sourced to one cause. Rather it was the result of the combination of events pre-dating the war and the spark that ignited our intervention into this conflict. This paper will trace the reasons behind the United States involvement in this war. The United States partaking in this war, was a signal to the rest of the world that the United States was ready to emerged as a world power. By having one of the best Naval Fleets, by the beginning of the war, the United States sent a messaged to the rest of the world that the US is ready and capable to become more involved in foreign affairs. However, it is important to question the importance of each cause that led up to the United States declaring war with Spain and putting itself between them and Cuba.
The Americans were losing patience over the whole Cuban affair because Spain cut shipping and economic interests from Cuba. Americans wanted the economic situation resolved so they could get back to the economic fortunes they were used to; therefore, the worsening economy was one of the main causes of the War of 1898. When the United States finally denounced the dominance of the Spanish government in Cuba, Spain cut its economic ties with the United States. Trade for the United States was impacted greatly. Due to the sharp drop of sugar prices that took place from early 1884, the old Cuban “sugar nobility,” unable to mechanize and cut costs, began to disintegrate and lose its dominant role in the island’s economy and society (Hernandez). This facilitated the United States’ penetration of the Cuban economy, and the United States took over sugar estates and mining interests. It was American machinery, technicians, and capital that helped save the Cuban sugar mills.
The struggle of Cuba to gain its independence from Spain, which began in 1895, has captured the attention of many Americans. Spain’s brutal repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the U.S. public by American newspaper publishers, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer which caused to shape the national mood of agitation against Spain. Hearst and Pulitzer exaggerated the actual events in Cuba and how did Spanish brutally treated their prisoners by adding sensational words to catch the emotions of readers. However, publishing stories against the atrocities of Spain did not convince President Cleveland to support the intervention with Spain. When President McKinley held the office in 1897, he wanted to end the revolt peacefully, and he tried to avoid the involvement of America to the conflict between Cuba and Spain. McKinley sent Stewart Woodford to Spain to negotiate for peaceful Cuban autonomy and it all went smoothly and the independence of Cuba was supposed to be awarded after the negotiation. However, the peaceful settlement suddenly vanished after the incident of February 1898 when a private letter for a Cuban friend written by the Spanish minister Enrique Dupuy de Lome was stolen by a Cuban age...
The Spanish-American War was the brief conflict that the United States waged against Spain in 1898. The war had grown out of the Cuban struggle for independence, and whose other causes included American imperialism and the sinking of the U.S warship Maine. The actual hostilities in the war lasted four months, from April 25 to August 12, 1898. Most of the fighting occurred in or near the Spanish colonial possessions of Cuba and the Philippines, nearly halfway around the world form each other. In both battlegrounds, the decisive military event was the complete destruction of a Spanish naval squadron by a vastly superior U.S. fleet. These victories, after brief resistance, brought about the surrender of the Spanish to U.S. military forces as indicated by a peace treaty signed between the two countries on December 10, 1898, in Paris, France. In the end, the Americans had minimal casualties, while the Spanish suffered immense fatalities and damage to their naval resources (Encyclopedia Britannica).
The Spanish-American war was the first and biggest step that the United States of America took toward imperialism. It was the war that secured the US as the most powerful country in the world. This war was a benefit to the USA because we gained land, gained respect, and taught a lesson to one of our enemies. In addition to this, the losses that we suffered were almost nothing compared to other conflicts or wars. The Spanish-American war was by no means for the sole purpose of gaining land and respect, the United States freed an oppressed country and took pieces of land that were better off under US control.
For 113 days during the summer of 1898, the United States was at war with Spain. Neither the president of the United States, nor his cabinet, nor the the queen of Spain, nor her ministers wanted the war wanted the war. It happened eventhough they made their best efforts to prevent it. It happened because of ambition, miscalculation, and stupidity; and it happened because of kindness, wit, and resourcefulness. It also happened because some were indifferent to the suffering of the world’s wretched and others were not (O’Toole 17). By winning the war the United States proved the the rest of the world and to itself that it could and would fight against foreign nations. For many years, world power had been concentrated in the countries in Europe. Nations such as Great Britain, France, Germany, and Spain had the most influence in global affairs. But a shift in power was gradually taking place as the United States matured. The young nation gained wealth and strength. Its population grew immensely, and many people believed it would become a major world power (Bachrach, 11) Spain was one of the many European countries that had territory in the United States. Spain controlled mostly some islands off the coast of Central America. The most important of these were Cuba and Puerto Rico. The United States was led to believe that the Spanish mosgoverned and abused the people of these islands. In fact, Spain did overtax and mistreat the Cubans, who rebelled in 1868 and again in 1895. Thus, the American people felt sympathetic toward the Cuban independence movement. In addition, Spain had frequently interfered with trade between its colonies and the United States. Even though the United States had been a trading partner with Cuba since the seventeenth century, Spain sometimes tried to completely stop their trade with Cuba. In Spain doing so, this sometimes caused damage to U.S. commercial interests. The United States highly disagreed with Spain’s right to interfere with this trade relationship. (Bachrach, 12) The United States was also concerned that other trading and commercial interests were threatened by the number of ships and soldiers Spain kept in the area. If the United States had to fight a war with Canada or Mexico, these Spanish forces could quickly mobilize against the United States.
Declaration of war At the time of the sinking of the Maine U.S. President William Mckinley was in office. Pres. Mckinley had hoped to avoid going to war with Spain but along with thousands of other Americans was swept up in the feeling to support war. In 1898 Pres. mckinley asked to declare war on Spain.
As one of America's great white fleet ships lay on the bay of Havana Cuba, people started questioning the reason of the explosion. After a couple of days, the Press was informed of the tragic accident, that could have been an attack on the United States. Once the Press was involve there was no doubt it was in accident as the Yellow Press claimed it was an attack. The sinking of the U.S.S. Maine not only claimed one of the Great White Fleet, it also caused over 250 casualties. Although the tragedy of the maine could have sparked the war, there was more reasons why the U.S. declared war. America disapproved of spain and everything they were doing in territories controlled by Spain. Not only was Spain destroying the territories that they controlled, they contravene the Monroe Doctrine. It wasn’t always the bad things that caused the United States to invade Cuba, they also wanted to help them and even govern Cuba to an extent.
The first reason for the Spanish American War was public opinion. In 1895, American citizens took notice of a Cuban revolt against their corrupt Spanish oppressor. The Cuban insurgents reasoned that if they did enough damage , the US might move in and help the Cubans win their independence. Not only did Americans sympathize with the Cubans upon seeing tragic reports in the newspaper, but they also empathized in that the US once fought for their own independence from Britain. If France didn’t intervene, the Americans probably would not have won their freedom. As if this did not rally enough hate for the Spanish among the American Public, fuel was added to the flame by the Spanish General (“Butcher”) Weyler. He attempted to crush the rebellion by herding Cubans into barbed-wire concentration camps. In turn, the American public was outraged.
The Spanish American War started in 1898 and lasted about four months. Although the war might have seemed focused on freeing Cuba from Spain and gaining independence for Cuba and the Philippines, it was actually stimulated by nationalism and commercialism. Commercialism was a major factor when declaring war because the United States depended on Cuba and the Philippines for trade and business with other countries, especially in Asia and Latin America. Another major factor for the war was that the United States wanted to spread its Anglo-Saxon culture around the world and emerge as a world-wide power. Other minor motives for the war include the United States coming to the aid of the Cubans in their revolt against Spain and the feeling that the United States had the right to go into the Philippines because it had a superior culture.
On July 25, 1898 United States troops invaded Puerto Rico during the Spanish American War . As Olga Jimenez de Wagenheim and Kal Wagenheim state“ The war marked new eras for both the United States and Puerto Rico. It was America’s first major step as an imperialist power , The Spanish American War was a small war , edging towards immense consequences ” (77) . December 10, 1898 The Treaty of Paris between The United States and Spain was signed, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States . From there on The United States gained total control of the island of Puerto Rico and “ undertook a sustained Americanization campaign designed to make Puerto Rico in its sympathies , views, and attitude toward life and toward government essentially American” ( Morris 7 ). The United States claimed that their intention of possessing the island was to free the island from the Spanish but, Puerto Ricans soon learned that they would just be a controlled possession of the United States , this made some natives very unhappy. In just a short period of time Puerto Rico went from being a possession of Spain to the possession of the United States . Going through these sudden changes has caused many issues in the political , economic, and social status of Puerto Rico.
“The immediate origins of the 1898 Spanish-American War began with the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894. The American tariff…put restrictions on sugar imports to the United States; severely hurt the economy of Cuba, which was based on producing and selling sugar” (SparkNotes: The Spanish American War, 1898-1901,: Summery). Spain began imposing unreasonable high taxes on Cuba. Spanish troops ambushed and killed Cuba’s leader, José Martí and appointed General Valeriano Weyler as governor with orders to crush the Cuban rebellion. Weyler instituted concentration camps and forced the Cuban citizens into them so they could not aid the fight for freedom. These innocents starved and died from disease in the unlivable conditions of these camps.
Causes of the War In the 1800s, Spain had control over a lot of land, like The Philippines Islands, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. But that reign didn't last very long. From 1868 to 1878, Cuba started to rebel against Spain to gain independence. This was called the Cuba War of Independence.